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A Gatso speed camera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes you get the feeling of déjà vu when you read something in a magazine and think to yourself, here we go again! Years ago, before most of the bloody things were turned off, local authorities were accused of putting up speed cameras to simply raise money, not to save lives.

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They would hide them behind trees or camouflage them so that you didn’t stand an earthly of seeing them. So as you raced past the gates of a school, you weren’t slowed down, as was supposed to be the intention, instead you simply received a fixed penalty notice in the post.

As a result the local authorities were forced to paint the Gatso’s yellow so that motorists could see them and slow down to prove that the point was safety not money making. So I was surprised to see that London council, Redbridge, is trialling automated CCTV cameras to capture motorists straddling yellow boxes and making illegal turns in order to issue automatic fines.

At the moment fines can only be issued when a camera operator views the offence either live or on a recording. The new system uses number plate recognition to identify the driver then issues fines automatically via the computer system. The system has already been introduced by some local authorities to capture drivers illegally driving in bus lanes.

However this latest move has caused the AA and RAC concern who believe that the objective may be money raising rather than deter bad driver habits. Time will tell. By Graham Hill

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• Redbridge Council unveils first automated CCTV system for box junction offences (thisismoney.co.uk)

After a short respite it seems that the GATSO’s that were switched off earlier this year, due to withdrawn grants to run them, are set to be switched back on. The 72 cameras in Oxfordshire that were switched off in July will be switched back on in April 2011. A new agreement, adopted by 24 police forces, will mean that they will be given a portion of the cash collected from drivers who attend awareness courses in lieu of points on their licences. Whilst this will again cause those who are against Read more »

And so the debate goes on regarding speed cameras. I first of all reported that many local authorities were switching them off as they could no longer afford to keep them operating. Then the public stepped in and complained that they were necessary if we are not to see a rise in deaths on the road, supported by safety bodies. So now it seems that some local authorities are willing to rent a Gatso for £5,000 per annum if local people want to keep particular cameras operating. When Oxfordshire Read more »

None of us can say that we like speed cameras but we have to admit that not all are simply there to generate income for the local authority, some have a genuine use in built up areas, near to schools and along stretches of road that had previously been an accident black spot. So whilst many of us are generally pretty happy that many local authorities are preparing to switch off many of the static Gatso cameras it’s a bit Read more »